She needed light.Her phone was in her pocket, but pulling it out would require using her free hand, which would create a moment of distraction he could exploit.Her weapon had a light attachment, but activating it would also reveal her exact position.
"You know what's interesting about asthma?"David's voice came from near the front of the garage, closer to the main door."It's unpredictable.Stress makes it worse.Exertion makes it worse."
Kari heard the distinct sound of an inhaler—a sharp hiss followed by held breath.
"Emma mentioned that her attacker stopped chasing her," David said after a moment."She thought maybe I was letting her go, that it was some kind of warning.But the truth is, I couldn't keep running.My lungs were seizing up, every breath felt like breathing through a straw.I had to let her go or risk collapsing right there in the street."
"So you're admitting it," Kari said, her voice steady despite her racing pulse."You attacked Emma."
"I'm not admitting anything that will ever reach a courtroom."His voice was moving again, circling."This is just us, Detective.Just two people having a conversation in the dark."
Kari's eyes had adjusted enough now to make out general shapes.She could see the dark bulk of the Explorer, the workbench running along one wall.But David remained a ghost, moving between shadows.
"The chairman really doesn't know," David said, his tone almost conversational."About what I did.He thinks he's protecting a colleague who opposed dangerous research.When you're found dead in my garage, he'll tell the police the same story—that I was at that meeting all night, that I couldn't have been involved.He'll genuinely believe he's telling the truth."
"Until other witnesses contradict him."
"What witnesses?Everyone at that meeting saw me give my presentation.Saw me participate in discussions.They'll remember me being there because Iwasthere for most of it."David's voice carried a hint of pride."The human memory is remarkably unreliable.People conflate their overall impression of an event with specific moments.They remember that I was at the meeting, so they assume I was there for all of it.The chairman isn't lying, not really.He's just remembering what he expects to remember."
"You slipped out," Kari said, piecing it together."During one of the breaks or when the discussion got heated.Left for forty-five minutes, drove to Emma's house, attacked her, then came back before the meeting ended."
"Fifty-two minutes," David corrected."I timed it.Emma's house is only fifteen minutes away.That gave me plenty of time."
Kari heard him move again, the soft scuff of shoe on concrete.He was working his way around the garage, maybe trying to get behind her.She shifted her position, keeping her back to the wall, her weapon tracking toward each sound.
"What's in Patricia's research about your family?"Kari asked."What are you hiding?"
David was quiet for a long moment.When he spoke, his voice was softer, almost vulnerable."My daughter isn't really my daughter.Not biologically."
Kari's mind raced, trying to understand the implications."You adopted her?"
"In a sense.My wife and I couldn't have children.Her sister—her younger sister who lived in Phoenix—got pregnant from a relationship with a white man.A man she had no intention of marrying or even telling about the baby.The pregnancy would have been a scandal for their family, so we came to an arrangement.I would claim the child as mine.We'd say my wife had been pregnant but had kept it quiet.The baby would be raised as Hopi, enrolled in the tribe, given a legitimate place in the community."
"And Patricia's DNA analysis would have revealed that your daughter didn't have your genetic markers."
"It would have revealed that she had significant non-Hopi ancestry.Enough to call her enrollment into question.Enough to make people ask questions about her parentage."David's voice was strained now, emotional."She's twenty-three years old.She's lived her entire life as Hopi, as my daughter, as a member of this community.She's engaged to be married to a good man from a good family.And Patricia's research would have destroyed all of that."
"So you killed to protect a secret adoption."
"I killed to protect my daughter's identity and future!"David's voice cracked with anger."You can't understand what it means to her.She knows she's adopted—we told her the truth when she turned eighteen.But no one else knows.No one questions her place here.And if Patricia's research had become public, if people had seen the DNA evidence showing her mixed ancestry..."
"Her enrollment would have been challenged.Her marriage prospects might have suffered.People would have gossiped."Kari's voice was hard."So you murdered two people to avoid gossip and bureaucracy."
"I protected my daughter from having her entire identity stripped away!"David's control was slipping now, emotion bleeding through."You think it's just gossip?You think it's just bureaucracy?It's her whole life.Her place in this world.Everything she is."
"And Patricia's life?Robert's life?Emma's life?What about Jake's life—you tried to kill him just because he might have seen your vehicle.How many lives is your daughter's secret worth?"
"As many as necessary."David's voice had gone cold again, the emotion shut down."You talk about lives like they're all equal.But they're not.My daughter—her future, her happiness, her identity—is worth more than all of them put together."
"That's not your decision to make."
"It was absolutely my decision to make.I'm her father.Protecting her is my responsibility, my obligation.It's what fathers do."
A sound—the metallic scrape of something being lifted from the workbench.Another tool, maybe, or something heavier.Kari's finger moved to the trigger, ready.
"I'm not going to let you arrest me," David said."I can't.If I'm arrested, if this goes to trial, everything comes out.My daughter's adoption, her parentage, all the details Patricia discovered.The very thing I killed to protect would be exposed anyway.I can't let that happen."
"Then what's your plan?Kill me and hope Polacca doesn't figure it out?"
